1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a configuration detection device for detecting a configuration of an endoscope, especially for detecting a configuration of an endoscope that is inserted into a body for an observation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a medical endoscopic observation, an endoscope must be inserted into a body in accordance with the shapes of body organs that are to be examined, because the end of the endoscope should not come into contact with them.
Therefore, an endoscope inspection system where a configuration of a scope inserted into a body is confirmed in an X-ray transmitted image generated by transmission of an X-ray to a subject, during an endoscopic observation, has been known. Further, a detection device for detecting a configuration of an inserted scope, where a configuration of a scope inside a body is detected by finding a change of a magnetic field, using a magnetic scope, has also been known.
On the other hand, an optical configuration detection device using a plurality of fiber bundles, where a light absorbing unit is provided for each fiber bundle, and where each of the fiber bundles is used for detecting a curvature of a subject in one direction, has also been known.
X-ray exposure may have negative effects on body health when the degree of exposure is over a permissible amount. On the other hand, if magnetism is used for detecting the configuration of an inserted scope, then if the subject is out of range of the magnetic field, the configuration may not be detected, or the accuracy of detection of the configuration may decrease.
When adopting an aforementioned optical configuration detector probe to detect a configuration of an inserted scope, the choice of endoscope to use with such an optical configuration detector probe is limited. The reason is that such an optical configuration detector probe requires a wide diameter, due to use of a plurality of optical fiber bundles. Further, in recent trends, the diameters of endoscopes have been narrowed, so as not to cause pain to a subject person; thus, the diameters of the associated forceps mouths have also been narrowed. Therefore, an optical configuration detector probe can not be adopted to detect a configuration of an inserted scope without narrowing the diameter thereof in order to adjust the diameter of the associated forceps mouth.
Further, if the number of fiber bundles included in such an optical configuration detector probe is decreased to narrow the diameter of the optical configuration detector probe, the precision of detection of the configuration of an inserted scope decreases.